Gone are the days when leaders were expected to have all the answers and struggle alone. In the modern workplace, leadership is no longer about commanding and controlling; instead, exceptional leaders are highly skilled at collaborating—bringing people with different skills and backgrounds together to exchange ideas and perspectives in order to achieve a common goal. When leaders collaborate with their teams, they build trust and create an environment where everyone feels valued and empowered. This leads to better decision-making, greater innovation, increased productivity, stronger team cohesion, and a more engaged workforce—achieving desired successes along the way.

I find the concept of collaboration both fascinating and perplexing. Let me explain why.

There is a fun and creative collaboration activity I sometimes do when engaging audiences in-person. I ask them to think of three things that they really want out of life—which can be anything, from world peace, to making more money, to losing 40 pounds. They don’t need to share the three ideas; they just need to have them top-of-mind. Then I instruct everyone to find a partner, and once they have, I tell them to get into an arm-wrestling position. Next, they need to grip their opponent’s hand, palm-to-palm, and when I say “Go,” they should try to force their opponent’s hand down onto the table. The obvious goal is to get those three things you really want. When they receive the signal to start, most people do as you would expect—they use all of their strength and might and fight ‘til the bitter end. With the room erupting in laughter, and a few clear expressions of domination, I call an end to the exercise. What happens next may surprise you. (Click here to continue reading!)